Railroaded

Cohoes, N.Y.: Having recently returned from an Amtrak vacation cross-country tour to three national parks, I feel qualified to respond to “Amtrak slow, getting slower” (Aug. 1). We left the Albany-Rensselaer station to Chicago to connect with a 13-day tour: Chicago, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Flagstaff, Chicago. We departed Albany on time, arriving in Chicago two hours late while stopping at least three times for freight trains, which we were told took priority (“supply chain issues”). It didn’t take long to realize that late arrival/ departures were the norm. In almost every case, trains were perpetually late, ranging from 55 minutes to five hours. In fact, because of our delays due to freight traffic, our train from Flagstaff to Chicago arrived about three hours late, necessitating our literally sprinting the equivalent of four city blocks at the Chicago station with luggage in tow in order to catch our connection back to Albany. Never again.